Table of contents for 92 in Android Advisor

Price: £949 from fave.co/3040j5x Let’s get this out of the way: the Galaxy Z Flip3 is not a perfect phone (because there’s no such thing). But it’s a phone that absolutely nails what it sets out to: provide a premium-feeling folding phone that looks fantastic, feels great to use, and doesn’t cost the Earth. The perfect version of this phone would probably have slightly better cameras – but then it would cost a few hundred more. Or maybe it would have longer battery life – but in that case it wouldn’t be half so compact. Samsung made the right compromises, and the result is not only a foldable that can stand toe-to-toe with its slab phone rivals, but is comfortably the most exciting phone this year. DESIGN Last year’s Galaxy Z…

Price: £79 from fave.co/3FBKtzh As phones become more all-singing and all-dancing personal supercomputers that we keep in our pockets, those advancements from high-end devices start to trickle down to cheaper devices, too. Step forward Motorola’s Moto e7i Power – a phone that costs under £80 new, and still offers a nice big display, solid battery life making it a potentially great option for a first smartphone. While it’s clear some compromises had to be made to allow for that impressively low price, it’s still got enough under the hood to make it worth a look for anyone that doesn’t want to break the bank on a new device. As long as you’re not expecting high refresh rates or peak gaming performance, you’ll find your money goes pretty far here. DESIGN The…

One of the worst parts about surfing the web is when you innocently open up some site and a video you didn’t ask for suddenly starts blaring annoying audio into your unexpecting ears. It’s especially obnoxious on a phone, where you’re frequently scrolling on your screen in a semi-public area or whilst someone else slumbers nearby. We’ve all been there. We all loathe it. And yet, we continue to experience it, with no obvious fix or easy way to avoid the annoyance. Thankfully, Google’s Chrome Android browser has an effective system for sending overly aggressive websites a signal that you don’t appreciate their unprompted audio invasions. In fact, with a single tap, you can stop a site from making sounds on your phone ever again. And you can take control…

Price: £399 from fave.co/3FCToAA Since Sony revamped and simplified its smartphone line-up two years ago, the company has prioritized quality over quantity. Indeed, we’ve only seen three new Sony phones in 2021, excluding the Japan-exclusive Xperia 10 III Lite. The regular Xperia 10 III is the cheapest of the trio getting a global launch, although that still doesn’t extend to the US. There’s also been a significant delay between announcement and release, albeit not on the same level as the more expensive Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III. Was it worth the wait? I spent a few weeks with the device to find out. DESIGN Unless you’re familiar with Sony phones, the Xperia 10 III will take some getting used to. Its tall, narrow body and 21:9 aspect ratio is…

5G is still a relatively new technology, but we’re already seeing more affordable smartphones that support these new super-fast data speeds. When 5G phones first started hitting the market, they arrived as special iterations of existing devices (like the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Oppo Reno 5G) and were priced highly because of this. This was partly down to the fact that these were the first phones to support a new feature in 5G, which from a manufacturing standpoint came with added costs in research and development, as well as tooling; not to mention the price premium marketers could slap on a phone just by its nature of being among the first to offer 5G support. Thankfully, the cost of implementing 5G technology is…

Price: £300 from fave.co/3aoKw3e After the release of the Realme GT earlier this year (see page 56), Xiaomi has followed up with the GT Master Edition. Unlike previous Master Editions, this contains a new chipset, camera features and new design options. But how does it perform? Read on to find out. DESIGN One of the defining traits of the GT Master Edition is the range of finishes that it comes in. The grey version (designed by Naoto Fukasawa) has a corrugated back that resembles a suitcase. This also comes with a matching protective case in the same style. Realme generally offers quite daring finishes across its GT line but if Fukasawa’s most ambitious offering is a little too much for your tastes, the phone can also be had in a less striking and divisive…

Google Assistant is in the midst of getting some significant upgrades on Android – small-seeming features that could have a supersized impact on your workday efficiency. They’re exactly the types of productivity-boosting titbits I love to uncover on Android, as they’ll make your phone instantly smarter and your life immediately easier. So what’s the catch, you might be wondering? Well, there’s just one: these new Assistant abilities are arriving mostly unannounced. They ought to be available on any reasonably recent Android phone by now, though. It’s just up to you to find them and then figure out how they fit into your personal productivity picture. Let’s break down what these new Android Assistant features are all about and how they could be helpful for you. 1. THE DELAYED ACTION…